Investigating Neuropsychological, Academic, and Behavioral Correlates of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in ADHD
Year: 2013
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The present study aimed to expand current understanding of the sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) construct by first investigating whether SCT is a multi-factorial construct and then examining associations between SCT and a range of neuropsychological, behavioral, and academic outcomes.Teacher reports of SCT were gathered for 102 medication naïve children, aged 7-11 (inclusive), who met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ADHD.Each participant completed five computerized neuropsychological tasks designed to assess a range of neuropsychological domains (e.g., working memory, attention, and inhibitory control), a twenty minute analogue math task customized to his or her level of ability, and the Numerical Operations subtest of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition.A principal axis factor analysis resulted in two separate SCT factors: a Sluggish/Sleepy factor and a Daydreamy factor.In order to examine correlates of the SCT factor scores, a series of linear mixed models tested whether the SCT factor scores predicted a wide range of neuropsychological, academic, and behavioral outcomes.Whether the relationship between SCT factors and these outcomes was moderated by ADHD subtype was also tested.Once teacher-rated inattention was accounted for, neither the Sluggish/Sleepy factor nor the Daydreamy factor was related to any of the neuropsychological, academic, and behavioral outcomes across all children with ADHD.However, a significant Daydreamy factor by ADHD subtype interaction effect was observed for mean reaction time, reaction time standard deviation, and tau across the five tasks with sigma also being marginally significant.In order to investigate the significant Daydreamy by subtype interactions, models were rerun with each subtype (ADHD-I and ADHD-C) separately.Consistent with previous research suggesting that the SCT construct is highly associated with the ADHD-I and not the ADHD-C subtype, results showed that the Daydreamy factor was positively related to reaction time standard deviation and ex-Gaussian sigma across the five tasks (with mean reaction time being marginally iii significant) for only the ADHD-I group but not the ADHD-C group.As would be expected, higher Daydreamy factor scores were associated with more variable and slower reaction times in the ADHD-I group above and beyond variance accounted for by teacher-rated inattention.Findings support the argument that SCT is a multi-factorial construct and indicates that it is associated with some neuropsychological outcome measures within the ADHD-I group.The results from the present study add to the validity of the SCT construct, though only among children with ADHD-I.
Author: Kathleen M. Kingery
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2614055375